<p>A 35-year-old Russian billionaire has embarked on an ambitious goal to make immortality a reality by using cutting-edge science that enables uploading of human brain to a computer.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Dmitry Itskov has brought together some of the world's leading neuroscientists, robot builders and consciousness researchers to create a robot which is capable of uploading a person's personality.<br /><br />Itskov '2045 initiative' is described as the next step in evolution, supporting research into artificial intelligence. The project aims to store a person's thoughts and feelings in a robot, following the belief by experts that brains function in the same way as a computer.<br /><br />"Within the next 30 years I am going to make sure that we can all live forever. I'm 100 per cent confident it will happen. Otherwise I wouldn't have started it," Itskov said.<br /><br />The project's first step is to create a robot that can be controlled using the mind. It would work by uploading a digital version of a human brain to an android – effectively rebooting a person's mind – which would take the form of a robotic copy of a human body or, once technology has developed, a hologram with a full human personality.<br /><br />"If there is no immortality technology, I'll be dead in the next 35 years. The ultimate goal of my plan is to transfer someone's personality into a completely new body," Itskov told BBC.<br /><br />He has invested in the programme having amassed a fortune from his internet media firm New Media Stars.<br /><br />Some scientists claim the project is "too stupid" and "cannot be done".<br /><br />"You cannot code intuition, you cannot code aesthetic beauty, you cannot code love or hate," said Miguel Nicolelis, leading neuroscientist at Duke University.<br /><br />"There is no way you will ever see a human brain reduced to a digital medium. It's simply impossible to reduce that complexity to the kind of algorithmic process that you will have to have to do that," Nicolelis said.<br /><br />However, Itskov is more sanguine and believes he could indeed succeed in his goal of bringing about immortality.<br /><br />"I will answer you to the question of ethics by the opinion which was given to me by his holiness the Dalai Llama when I visited him in 2013. His point was that you can do everything if your motivation is to help people," Itskov said.<br /><br />"For the next few centuries I envision having multiple bodies, one somewhere in space, another hologram-like, my consciousness just moving from one to another," he said. <br /><br /></p>
<p>A 35-year-old Russian billionaire has embarked on an ambitious goal to make immortality a reality by using cutting-edge science that enables uploading of human brain to a computer.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Dmitry Itskov has brought together some of the world's leading neuroscientists, robot builders and consciousness researchers to create a robot which is capable of uploading a person's personality.<br /><br />Itskov '2045 initiative' is described as the next step in evolution, supporting research into artificial intelligence. The project aims to store a person's thoughts and feelings in a robot, following the belief by experts that brains function in the same way as a computer.<br /><br />"Within the next 30 years I am going to make sure that we can all live forever. I'm 100 per cent confident it will happen. Otherwise I wouldn't have started it," Itskov said.<br /><br />The project's first step is to create a robot that can be controlled using the mind. It would work by uploading a digital version of a human brain to an android – effectively rebooting a person's mind – which would take the form of a robotic copy of a human body or, once technology has developed, a hologram with a full human personality.<br /><br />"If there is no immortality technology, I'll be dead in the next 35 years. The ultimate goal of my plan is to transfer someone's personality into a completely new body," Itskov told BBC.<br /><br />He has invested in the programme having amassed a fortune from his internet media firm New Media Stars.<br /><br />Some scientists claim the project is "too stupid" and "cannot be done".<br /><br />"You cannot code intuition, you cannot code aesthetic beauty, you cannot code love or hate," said Miguel Nicolelis, leading neuroscientist at Duke University.<br /><br />"There is no way you will ever see a human brain reduced to a digital medium. It's simply impossible to reduce that complexity to the kind of algorithmic process that you will have to have to do that," Nicolelis said.<br /><br />However, Itskov is more sanguine and believes he could indeed succeed in his goal of bringing about immortality.<br /><br />"I will answer you to the question of ethics by the opinion which was given to me by his holiness the Dalai Llama when I visited him in 2013. His point was that you can do everything if your motivation is to help people," Itskov said.<br /><br />"For the next few centuries I envision having multiple bodies, one somewhere in space, another hologram-like, my consciousness just moving from one to another," he said. <br /><br /></p>